Branded Zone Installation and Administration Concepts

The zoneadm command
described in the zoneadm(1M) man
page is the primary tool used to install and administer non-global zones.
Operations using the zoneadm command must be run from the
global zone. The following tasks can be performed using the zoneadm command:

Verify a zone

Install a zone

Boot a zone

Display information about a running zone

Halt a zone

Reboot a zone

Uninstall a zone

Relocate a zone from one point on a system to another point
on the same system

Provision a new zone based on the configuration of an existing
zone on the same system

Once the zone is installed, all software configuration and management
has to be done by the zone administrator using Linux tools from inside the
zone.

lx Branded Zone Installation Methods

You can install an lx branded
zone by using a tarball, CD-ROM or DVD discs, or an ISO image. If you install
from discs or from an ISO image, you can specify Sun package cluster categories.
The categories are cumulative. If you do not specify a cluster, the default
is desktop.

lx Branded Zone Construction

This section applies to only to initial zone construction, and not to
the cloning of existing zones.

After you have configured a non-global
zone, you should verify that the zone can be installed safely on your system's
configuration. You can then install the zone. The files needed for the zone's
root file system are installed by the system under the zone's root path. The
Linux zone will be populated from CD, ISO images, or a tarball, as described
in How to Install an lx Branded Zone.

The resources specified in the configuration file are added when the
zone transitions from installed to ready. A unique zone ID is assigned by
the system. File systems are mounted, network interfaces are set up, and devices
are configured. Transitioning into the ready state prepares the virtual platform
to begin running user processes.

A zone in the ready state does not have any user processes executing
in it. The primary difference between a ready zone and a running zone is that
at least one process is executing in a running zone. See the init(1M) man page for more information.

In the ready state, the zsched and zoneadmd processes
are started to manage the virtual platform.

zoneadmd Zones Administration
Daemon

The zones administration daemon, zoneadmd, is the
primary process for managing the zone's virtual platform. For more information,
see The zoneadmd Daemon.

zsched Zone Scheduling Process

Branded Zone Application Environment

The zoneadm command is used to create the zone application
environment.

All additional configuration is done by the zone administrator using
Linux tools from within the zone.

Passwords

Note that the root (superuser)
password will be root when the zone is installed from the
Sun tarball. The root (superuser) password will be unset (blank) when the
zone is installed from ISO images or a CD.

About Halting, Rebooting, Uninstalling, and Cloning lx Branded Zones

This section provides an overview of the procedures for halting, rebooting,
uninstalling, and cloning zones.

Halting a Branded Zone

The zoneadmhalt command
is used to remove both the application environment and the virtual platform
for a zone. The zone is then brought back to the installed state. All processes
are killed, devices are unconfigured, network interfaces are destroyed, file systems are unmounted, and the kernel data structures are destroyed.

Branded Zone autoboot

If you set the autoboot resource property in a zone's
configuration to true, that zone is automatically booted
when the global zone is booted. The default setting is false.

Note that for zones to autoboot, the zones service svc:/system/zones:default must also be enabled.

Uninstalling the Branded Zone

The zoneadmuninstall command
removes all of the files under the zone's root file system. Before proceeding,
the command prompts you to confirm the action, unless the -F (force)
option is also used. Use the uninstall command with caution,
because the action is irreversible.